Recap & Reaction: Portland Thorns vs Bay FC

The Portland Thorns returned home to take on Bay FC in the new side's first match at Providence Park

The Thorns returned home where they met Bay FC for the first time on Providence Park turf. This was not to be the homecoming that the Thorns envisioned for their returning Olympians as they fell 1-3 on Friday evening.

Rob Gale switched up the starting lineup opting for a backline of Reyna Reyes, Kelli Hubly, Isa Obaze, and Nicole Payne. The midfield began with Olivia Moultrie, Sam Coffey, Hina Sugita, and Jessie Fleming. They topped off the 4-4-2 formation with Soph Smith and newly acquired Alexa Spaanstra. Mackenzie Arnold also had her debut as a Thorn in net.

Mirroring the early goal in the game against Gotham, the Thorns found themselves down a goal in the seventh minute after Abby Dalkemper scored her first goal in Bay FC colors.

While the game seemed fairly even for a bit Bay was quick to make sure that it didn’t stay that way for long. Rachel Hill netted the second goal in the 18th minute. It matched the first goal in method: cross in and a header/ tap into the back of the net.

Soph was working hard to bring the game back into The Thorns’ reins, and finally, she broke through in the 32nd minute after picking the pocket of Rowland and putting it away.

At the end of the first half, Alexa Spaanstra was the apparent hero of the first half when she netted an equalizer, but her goal was called offside and the half ended 1-2.

The Thorns didn’t fare much better in the second half, but there were a few more chances from the Portland side that looked promising. First, in the 48th minute, Nicole Payne had a good look at net that went pinging off the crossbar.

The first change of the game came in the 58th minute when Reilyn Turner replaced Soph Smith. This was her Providence Park debut, and she had some good runs towards the goal and looked overall promising.

But Bay FC put the final nail in the coffin in the 70th minute, Joelle Anderson had a solid shot from outside the box and pretty much ended the game then and there.

More changes came in the 75th minute when Becky Sauerbrunn came on for Isa Obaze, Payton Linnehan replaced Sam Coffey and Marie Müller took over for Alexa Spaanstra. Spaanstra it must be noted had a great game — she looked energetic and had some good efforts.

The final sub of the game took the shape of Megan Klingenberg in the 85th minute. None of these changes however made the difference for the Thorns as the match ended 1-3.

Reaction:

Well guys this may be getting dire.

First off, it was great to see Mackenzie Arnold in her debut, she was directing her teammates and seemed overall fairly comfortable in her position.

I feel like for my sake I am going to highlight the good first before the bad.

Hina Sugita: she is amazing, I feel like we take her skills for granted. Her technicality is so fun to watch and she is great at winning the ball back quickly on the defensive side. She’s also crazy physical and can body players around while she dribbles.

Jessie Fleming- Her work rate is second to none, she is all over the place and giving it her all for the entire match.

Soph Smith- I feel like I need not say more, she’s the best player we have and she makes up for so many deficiencies that The Thorns have.

Okay now for the less fun part, the negatives…

Let players play in their natural positions. Liv is a prime example of this, let her play where she can the most of use. Rob Gale hasn’t played true wingers in his last two games following the Olympic break. Before this game it was Izzy D’Aquila in that winger spot against Gotham. We have so many players who do fill those spaces — let them play there.

The Thorns keep giving up goals left and right and haven’t done too much to adjust to this. We also know The Thorns can’t come back from goal deficits, so one thing or the other needs to change.

This marks the second game where they lost by two and they now tally only one win in their last 6 NWSL games. The last time Portland scored more than 2 goals? May 17th. Not great.

Possession is all over the place, sometimes they are linking passes nicely and other times they are giving balls away left and right.

Post Game Presser

Rob Gale on the offense and struggling to find a result

The next NWSL match that The Thorns will play will be against Washington Spirit away on September 7th at 9:30 am. Before that though they will stay home and play a group stage match against Club América in the first ever Concacaf W Champions Cup on September 4th at 7pm.